The present invention relates to the electronic transfer of information, particularly intellectual property, over computer system networks. More specifically, the present invention pertains to the control and regulation of the distribution of intellectual properties over the Internet.
Intellectual property can be considered in terms of either its xe2x80x9cembodimentsxe2x80x9d or its xe2x80x9crepresentations.xe2x80x9d Generally, an embodiment of an intellectual property is the property itself, while a representation of the intellectual property can be data or meta-data either describing or pointing to the property.
For example, intellectual properties such as real-time human communications, stored and forwarded messages, documents or collections, dynamic or persistent data structures and databases, interpretable scripts, source code, and partially or fully compiled programs and applications, as well as other intellectual properties generally referred to as xe2x80x9ccontent,xe2x80x9d are often described as an embodiment of the intellectual property. Embodiments of intellectual property can also be theoretical or abstract concepts which are exemplified, documented or reified as a specific form of content.
Legal rights, contracts, agreements or other assertions can be embodied in the form of content, but are not the embodiment of the intellectual property itself. Instead, these are considered representations of the intellectual property. Some intellectual properties, such as a deed or title to a home, can be representations of physical or real properties.
Intellectual properties are becoming more and more central to the world economy. In an information economy, discrete or aggregate values are placed on intellectual properties, and the markets for general or specific applications of these properties are huge. For example, the software industry, which has embodiments of intellectual properties in software products and services, and representations of property rights in licenses, legal contracts and agreements, copyrights, trademarks and patents, currently has annual sales rates of over $135 billion per year.
Increasingly, the Internet (or World Wide Web) is the medium of transmission of intellectual properties such as software products and the like. The Internet uses the Internet Protocol to frame, route, and reassemble digital messages. The transaction of intellectual property is a general transfer of data and data communications over the Internet; intellectual property such as software is simply treated as a bit stream in Internet Protocol. On top of the Internet Protocol are specialized transport layer services, such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Within these, many messages are encoded in markup languages such as XML (Extensible Markup Language), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) meta-markup language based on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).
With regard to the protection of intellectual property, the prior art takes a defensive posture that is focused on guarding the intellectual property against unauthorized access, duplication and use. Limitations are placed on the use and distribution of a piece of intellectual property, and various means are used to attempt to enforce these limitations. Oftentimes, the limitations can be easily circumvented, and so enforcement can be difficult and therefore is mostly ineffective.
In addition, while in some cases the prior art may take advantage of the Internet for delivery of intellectual property such as software, the prior art is still encumbered by more traditional mechanisms for conducting the legal and commercial aspects of intellectual property transactions. For example, purchase orders, terms and conditions, license agreements and the like must be negotiated, written, reviewed and approved. These more traditional mechanisms can cause delay in the delivery and use of the intellectual property by a purchaser or licensee, and delay in the receipt of payments or royalties due to a seller or licensor.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and/or system that can be used to control the identification, negotiation, establishment, and transaction of intellectual properties (embodiments and representations) over the Internet while overcoming the problems discussed above. What is also needed is a method and/or system that satisfies the above need and that can accommodate commonly-accepted legal and financial standards and systems. The present invention provides a novel solution to the above needs.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the various drawing figures.
The present invention provides the framework for an intellectual property management method and system thereof to control the identification, negotiation, establishment, and transaction of intellectual properties (embodiments and representations) over the Internet, as well as over internal company computer system networks (xe2x80x9cIntranetsxe2x80x9d or the like) or via non-networked devices. The present invention furthermore provides the framework for a method and system thereof that can facilitate the legal and commercial aspects of intellectual property transactions, in order to reduce the delay in the delivery and use of the intellectual property by a purchaser or licensee, and to reduce the delay in the receipt of payments or royalties due to a seller or licensor.
The present embodiment of the present invention provides a method and system thereof for regulating the distribution of intellectual properties using Internet Protocol with controlling processes and applications. Instead of treating the transaction of intellectual properties as a general transfer of data and data communications, in accordance with the present invention the acts of communication and the communicated data itself are treated as forms of intellectual property rights and intellectual properties. The present invention provides a method and system thereof for declaring rights to an intellectual property and for granting those rights to a purchaser or licensee, in order to more effectively protect the property rights of the intellectual property owner.
In the present embodiment of the present invention, an intellectual property is assigned a unique digital identifier that provides an address for locating the intellectual property using Internet Protocol. Electronic links are enabled between the intellectual property and other intellectual property elements which establish terms for accessing said intellectual property.
In one embodiment, a digital feature element can be used to describe features of the intellectual property. In another embodiment, a digital rights element can be used to describe the legal rights and limitations associated with the intellectual property. In yet another embodiment, a digital license element can be used to provide a license for the intellectual property.
In one embodiment, the intellectual property is codified using XML (Extensible Markup Language).